The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-02-17

is to cover the earth with rerratural
gladuoSs, tn omen all tho prison doors, to
balSan all the wounds, tomos' all the graves,
to burn up the night in the flrenla"e of a great
morning, to change iron handouts into dia-
monded wristlets, t, turn the whols race
around, and whereas it faced death, com
maniing it, Fright about face for heaven :"
According to tho number of the snires of the
churches in all our cities, towns, and neigh
torhoods, are thu cool homes the worldly
prosnerities, and tn, pure morals, and tn,
happy souls
Meet me at any denot the world over. nnl
with my EYES closed take me by the hand and
lead me S, that my feat W II not stumble, and
without my once looking down, or looking
on the level, take ne TO somc high roof or
tower and let me see tn tops Of the churches,
and will tell you the promotion of suicides,
Of arsons, of murders, of thefts. According as
the churches IRE numerous are the crimes
few. According rs the churches are few
the crimes ar numerous The most beautiful
organization the world ever saw or ever will
see is the much,maliyned Church, the friend
of all good, tho foe Of all evil, flair as the
moon and cleor as the SUM-" Beautiful in
her author. beautiful in her mission, the
heroine Of thu centuries, the bride of Christ.
the queen of the nations. There are hun
dreds of kindly institutions. some car
ing for inebriat-s, soma for the crippled,
some for tho imbe 'il". some for the
mi lel some for the blind, but tho Church is
the mother OF all these kin lily institutions.
Inere are asylums, American. or English, or
Scotch, or Irish, or French, or Germany, or
Italian, but the Church spreads her mantle
over all these. and will yet spread it over all
nations, Her gates are beautiful, her
songs are beautiful, her prayers are
beautiful, her conversations ara beauti.
full. her work is beautiful. All Kinrs and
warriors will vet bow down at her affairs, all
chains of sarfdom be shattered AGAINST her
doorstep, all nat ons will yet fellow her lead.
ing. How amiable are thy tabernacles! How
sacrel thy altars How glorious thy audito-
RUINS! So gra 'eful, so asniring, so grand,
and rolling on, and rolling up. we cry ont
out of the wilderness like rillars of smoke!"
Men may desecrate it, as Cromwell when
he stabbed his cavalry horses in st. Pauls
Cathedral: or break off the image Of Christ,
as did the iconoclasts in York Minister; or
hurl aga INST it august literary antipathies,as
did Gibbon; or plot its owe throw. as do some
in every community whose pride and hate
Commandments which it th1nders, and
the Sermon on the Mount which
it breathes. But it will stand
as long as the earth stands, the same unique,
and wonder working heatifir, and miraru
lous thing for which God de'reei it. Snail
wits tax their brain to say things that will
rut her at disadvantage, but many Of them
will send for its coincidence when dying, and
their children will be gathered up under
its benedictions after the parental curse
has been removed. Through her gates
will march all TIE influences for good
that shall ever reach our world. Take her
membership as mass, not speaking of the
acknowledged exec tions, they are the no.
bless, grandest kindest, best men and women
of the ages But for them the earth would
long ago have ben a burned-out volcano
They have been the salt that has kent the
human race from putrefaction insufferahle
either to human or ange ic olfactoCles. You
living and hypocrit al world, shut up those
ISLANDERS about the Church of Christ, an in
stitution viii h, far from being what it
ought to be aud never pretending to lie per-
feet is five hundred times better than any
other institution that the world ever saw or
ever d, eamtof. The highest honor ever had,
and the highest hon l shall ever receive,
and the highest honor ever want is to have
my name on her records as a member At
her affairs | repentel. AT her sacraments
believed. In her service let me die. From
her doors let me be burie |. Oh, Church OF
God! Thou hone of the righteous! Thou har-
Dor from tempest! Thou refuge for the weary!
Thou lighthouse of many nations! Thou
tyre of heaven I'ould kiss thy very dust
WIN &c t1SJ Oh dnc-t'ou
For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
To her my tolls aud cares be given
Till tolls and cares shall e1d.n
"Perfumei smoke" says Solo non, in the
words following my text Not like the fumes
coughed up from tho throat of steam pipe,
or poisoned with the gases of chemical facto.
res, or floating in black wrath from the con-
fagration of home teads, or sulpharous from
blazing batteries, bGt sweet as burning
grove of cinnamon or Jungle of sas atras,
or the odoTs Of a temple enspr. wv no is this
that comcth ont o. the wilderness like pillars
of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frank
incense:' Hear il, men aud women every
where, that the advance of tho genuine
Church OF Chris, means peace for all nations.
Victor Hugo, in his book entitled "Ninety-
three" says: "Nothing calmcr than smoke
but rothing more startling. There are peace
full smokes and there are evil ones, The thick
ness and color OF q line of smoke make the
whole difference between war ard peace. be-
tween fraternity and hatred. The whole hap
piness Of man or his complete misery IS some
times expressed in this thin vapor which the
wind scatters at will The great French
man was right, but go further and say that
as the Kingdom of God advances like pillars
of smoke, the black volumes belching from
batteries of war and pouring out from port
A distinguished General Of the late war
told me recently that Abraham Lincoln pro-
posed to avoid our civil conflict by purchase
of all the slaves of the South and setting them
free He calculated what would be a rea-
sonab!e Price for them, and, when the mum
Der of millions Of dollars that would be re-
euired for such a purpose was announced,
the proposition was secuted, and the North
would not have made the offer and the
South would not have accepted it
if made But" said my military
friend. "the war went on and just the num-
Der of millions of dollars that Mr.. Lincoln
calculated would have been enough to make
a reasonable purchase of all the slaves, were
spent in war, besides all the precious lives
that were hurled away in the two hundred
aud fifty battles" In other words, there
ought to be some other way for men to set
tie their controversies without wholesale
hatchery
The Church of God will yet become the
arbiter of nations If the world would allow
it, it could to-day step in between Germany
and France and settle the trouble about Al
sace and Lorraine, and between Russia and
Bulgaria, and between England and her an
tagonists, and between all the other nations
that are flying at each others threats, and
command paace and disband armies,
and harness for the plow thu war
horses now being hit he'd to ammunition
wagons, or saddled for cavalry charge.
That time must come, or, through the in
creased facility for shooting men and blow
ingup cities and whelming hosts to ms ant
d ath, so that we can kill a regiment easier
than we could on kill a company, and kill
brigade easier than we could once kill q
regiment, the patent Offices of the world
more busy than ever /, recognizing new
enginery of destruction, the human
race will. after awhile. go fighting with
one arm. and hobbliDg with enc foot, and
stumbling along with one eye, and some in
genious inventor inspired of the archangel
Of al mischief. VIII contrive ma hins tibet
Will Doe hole to the earth's center, ard
some desperate nation will throw into that
hole enough dynamite to blow this hulk of 0
planet into fragments dropping like me-
teoric stones on surrounding stellar habita.
tions
But this shall not be, for whatever else
lot go, / hang on to my Bible, which tells
me that the blac <sm this shop shall vet come
to its grandest use when the warrior and the
husbandman shall enter it side by side. and
the soldier shall throw into its bank of fires
his sword, and the farmer shall pick II
| up ploIghshare. and the straightesi
spear shall be bent into crook at each end
and then cut in two, and what was one spea,
shall be two pruning hooks. Down witt
| Molo and up with Christi Let no NOR,
warehouses eat out of the manager where Jesu.
| was born.
Peace! Forever roll off the slzv the blacl
| pillars OF smoke from the Marengos an,
Salamancas and Borodinos and Gettysburg